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JosephWongKS posted:
You clearly don't understand rationality. Yudowsky posted:
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Feb 22, 2015 21:20
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One of the great weaknesses of Science is this mistaken idea that if an experiment contradicts the dominant theory, we should throw out the theory instead of the experiment.
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| # ¿ Apr 30, 2024 01:33 |
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So apparently this was on a Berkley reading list for a fanfic course? There's some pretty great tumblr drama over the course, since apparently you're not supposed to give fanfic reviews with constructive criticism.
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Feb 24, 2015 03:00
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Arcsquad12 posted:Jesus h christ that was annoying. How drae a book about wizards and broomsticks not have a functioning bank system! Though you must wonder how many of these supposed "fkaws" in Rowling's writing are really her fault and how much of it is yudkowski putting words in characters' mouths to make them look stupid next to harry. Yeah. It's easy to make characters stupid and then say 'lol you are stupid'  If you want to do something clever, come up with a convincing reason WHY something works as it does (even if it doesn't seem like it should on the surface level). Like, The Strange Disappearance of SallyAnne Perks, for instance, explains why a really minnor character mysteriously vanishes midway through the series. Instead of just pointing and saying 'lol it is dumb that rowling forgot a character I am SMRT smart'.
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Feb 24, 2015 21:35
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reignonyourparade posted:I don't really mind the "woah there is serious money to be made loving with the Exchange rate" because it's not like "wizard society is dumb and hasn't changed in pretty much centuries" isn't something that pops up all the time in the books. It kinda implies every muggleborn in the world is an idiot.
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Feb 25, 2015 06:01
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petrol blue posted:I think he means a (systematic) attempt to find the rules that make stuff do what it does. The implication is that every new potion made is done by pure guesswork instead of by learning and applying known rules. How he'd know that is beyond me. I mean, hell, one of the few things we know about Dumbledore is that he did some research on dragon blood.
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Mar 2, 2015 07:22
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Nessus posted:I mean Harry never took a poo poo in the Potter novels I read, but that doesn't mean he's some magical unshitting being. well, he *is* a transhumanist 
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Mar 2, 2015 07:32
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"Wands are made from the hair of magical creatures. Wizards are magical creatures. Wands are made from wood. I use sandalwood shampoo. My hair is a wand. Avada Kevadra, Voldy!"
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Mar 3, 2015 01:31
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I thought they tore a dimensional rift open if you did that and you would fall out into the infinite void between planes. I think it's okay to nest bags of holding or portable holes, but only if you don't mix between the two.
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Mar 5, 2015 20:44
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Harry has never heard of a concussion, it seems.
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Mar 6, 2015 04:33
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They mention laws and theory several times - it just gets skimmed over because nobody gives a poo poo about a formula.
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Mar 7, 2015 06:42
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JosephWongKS posted:Do I need to have read the Twilight series first, or can Fifty Shades be read on a stand-alone basis? AFAIK, the only changes made for the published version were a few names and adjectives .
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Mar 11, 2015 08:24
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Yes, no rational sport in a real universe would ever allow for day-long games.
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Mar 13, 2015 07:54
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Fenrisulfr posted:Personally, things introduced into a story that only make sense if you know it's a story annoy me. It wouldn't be that hard to change the Seeker role into something that fits better with the game as a whole while still allowing Harry the spotlight. It isn't that hard to think up additional rules that make the seeker a sensible role. Judging from the house cup, there's definitely some cumulative scoring stuff going on. If I were to try to add as few extra wrinkles as possible, I'd also say that the positioning after you score a goal is set up to be super-favorable to the team that just scored, encouraging long streaks of goals by one team or another. If relatively-even teams can result in getting a dozen goals in a row, then the point values make sense.
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Mar 13, 2015 17:16
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Pvt.Scott posted:That, and the fact that parents are ok sending their children to a school where the students are constantly exposed to unnecessary danger. Hogwarts has a GOOD reputation. Just think how horrifying a shittier school would be. Defense against the dark arts classes sometimes involve live fire exercises with little oversight. "Hogwarts is the safest place in the wizarding world." You could actually write a pretty good comedy fanfic by taking that quote as literally correct.
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Mar 19, 2015 01:37
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Pottermore goes into a lot more detail. Basically, wizards know about muggle tech, they [url=http://pottermore.wikia.com/wiki/Technologyjust don't give a gently caress[/url]. And even the most pureblood-pride guys love cars. Apparently they took the idea of toilets from muggles. Before the 18th century, wizards just pissed wherever, then magicked away the evidence. Tunicate fucked around with this message at 17:54 on Mar 20, 2015 |
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Mar 20, 2015 17:51
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LowellDND posted:Like, their muggle expert (Mr Weasley) is fascinated by plugs, and doesnt understand electricity. They have to mention in their reporting that a 'gun' is a kind of 'muggle wand they use to kill each other'. Draco brags about outflying a helicopter in Sorcerer's Stone.
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Mar 20, 2015 18:38
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Deptfordx posted:Britain, once again saving proper civilisation. Speaking of which, you really should watch The Mask of Fu Machu. The cultural changes over the last fifty years have totally inverted who you see as the hero and the villain.
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Mar 21, 2015 20:20
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i81icu812 posted:Anecdotally, I took the SAT around the same time as Yud in a similar gifted screening/summer school salesmanship exercise. I'm pretty sure I scored about the same as Yud did. The top ~30ish scorers from my state got certificates and they all turned out more or less normal by the time high school graduation rolled around (small state, most ended up in the same 2 high schools). But for the grace of God... Also, like ten people at my middle school got perfect 1600s on the SAT. Admittedly, that's across sixth-through-eighth, but I strongly suspect Yud fell for a scam. Tunicate fucked around with this message at 16:03 on Mar 24, 2015 |
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Mar 24, 2015 16:01
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Properly defining 'Species' is a great topic to start biologists arguing with each other. Mycologists still have a grudge about the haploid/diploid thing, and two microbiologists will give you three definitions.
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Apr 6, 2015 07:30
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And biological systems are remarkably flexible. I mean you can just stick human cells into a mouse brain, and not only will they keep living, they'll make the mouse smarter.
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Apr 6, 2015 07:46
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Wasn't there some review-whoring involved in this chapter as well?
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Apr 10, 2015 07:34
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Davros1 posted:"Goddammit, just pick a loving house already!" "Screw it, you get Hagrid's shack."
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Apr 16, 2015 23:30
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Man, if you're going to go with terrible harry potter fic, you should go with another ultra-'intelligent' author-insert character whose thinly veiled egotism and disregard for the rights of others shows him to be - despite his insistence of his personal moral superiority - the true villain.
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Jun 3, 2015 07:50
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I like how 75-1=7.
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Jul 1, 2015 16:07
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divabot posted:We need some sort of emoticon :hugo: for HUGO QUALITY WORK in the fanfic field. We already have 
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Jul 19, 2015 16:56
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quote:Time reversed matter is equivalent to anti-matter - Yes. Physics is correct. EDIT: Nvm, misread what he was quoting Tunicate fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Aug 29, 2015 |
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Aug 29, 2015 04:19
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divabot posted:And remembering that it goes back a decade or so. It was because Yud is very big on gettin people to spam reviews for each chapter.
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Aug 29, 2015 18:32
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quote:one kilogram of antimatter encountering one kilogram of matter will annihilate in an explosion equivalent to 43 million tons of TNT
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Sep 1, 2015 19:45
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Pavlov posted:I met at least two of his cult members on my college campus even! Jerks put signs all over the campus for their meetup. Tons and tons since they were having a meetup for Less Wrong people who weren't students, and I guess none of them knew how to use a gps or google maps. They didn't get official approval like you're supposed to, and left the signs up everywhere, so I got my petty revenge by reporting them to student government.
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Sep 7, 2015 07:28
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More importantly, if the simulated scientists are so indistinguishable, what would the AI gain by being freed?
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Sep 7, 2015 18:49
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Don't worry guys if I get enough lawyers involved the genie won't screw me over.
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Sep 10, 2015 17:26
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Worm's explanations of everything pretty much immedately degrade into stupid nonsense the moment they get revealed. The leviathan arc was the last section that actually could cash the checks wildbow was making.
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Sep 13, 2015 23:37
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Yeah, you'd think that having a constant ongoing drain of magic scaling to the size of an object would be a wonderful way to quantify your magical strength. 'I can turn 4 cubic meters of wood into metal and sustain it for 10 minutes before running out of MP' or whatever.
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Sep 18, 2015 03:36
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Night10194 posted:It's an intellectual contest and intellect is the only trait that measures the worth of a person in Yud's mind. That's the same community that tries to maximize their productivity by setting text-to-speech to some insanely high WPM, to get more things read.
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Sep 18, 2015 06:22
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I see harry potter trolls have been replaced with DnD trolls.
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Oct 1, 2015 08:46
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Also, by the rules as given, wouldn't trolls kill themselves through self-transfigration?
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Oct 2, 2015 00:50
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Nah, you're thinking of this onequote:One time, this troper got pushed around by a bully at school. Having had enough he gathered his Nakama and challenged the bully. The smug jerk, thinking he was guranteed victory, accepted. We met on the roof of the school after class. He Begun by taunting me about the PTSD he knew I had. Suddenly, his goons grabbed my friends. Having been forced to a fight, I moved into my fighting stance. He Began to change. I stood relaxedly, simply informing him that "The predator is now the prey." He slowed. I stared him down. The bully, outmatched.Suddenly He Began to reveal he knew about my aspergers and asexuality too. That was my berserk button. I attacked, a staggering barrage that laid him low. Knowing defeat, He Began to crawl away, as his friends stared in awe. "This kid.. is.. inhuman..". I walked towards his friends and snapped a pencil as I would their spines Heh. They gathered their wounded leader, and I rested, knowing that justice had prevailed.
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Oct 22, 2015 18:08
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The novels mention that with so much magic flying around hogwarts electronics don't work.
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Oct 27, 2015 21:37
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MikeJF posted:
That got answered on pottermore. The answer is that poo poo gets really hosed up.
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Oct 28, 2015 09:00
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| # ¿ Apr 30, 2024 01:33 |
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Also moody's replacement bits are more functional than his original ones. He's a magitek cyborg.
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Nov 1, 2015 02:12
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